As for reducing the number of "This" comments, if a comment consists entirely of "This x10000" or "This so much" or "I agree x100", then you should report it, and we'll infract for Minor Spam. If it is like "This so much. I agree because XYZ", and they go into a constructive post (at least a sentence or two), it's fine. The word "This" or "I agree" doesn't make a post bad. When a post consists mostly of "THIS ^^^^^^", it is bad.

Agreed. Ratings systems invariably turn into popularity contests. God forbid I should have an opinion which differs from the norm, I'm suddenly a villain no matter how well and politely I state it. No thanks.

I'm sure many use Facebook, and if you have done so for a while, you should be familiar with situations where pressing "Like" adds a lot to the conversation. Making a fun or helpful comment feels very rewarding when many people "Like" what you wrote. Reading somebody else's fun or helpful comment and being able to "Like" it is fun.

When applying this to a forum, a thread starter asking for help could thank other posters who wrote posts with helpful content. A regular browser but non-poster of the forums could interact with others and "contribute" without having to post. Writing a fun comment would feel more rewarding if you got a few "Likes", since there often can't and anyway shouldn't be any "I lol'd" comments. Being able to "Like" good comments and perhaps even threads would make them stand out, passively recommending good reads to others.

All in all, I'd really like to see this happening. I believe I'd have more fun reading and posting on MMO-Champion if a "Like"-function was implemented.

On a sidenote, "Dislike" or "Downgrade" are terrible. They fill no function and only spread negative vibes.

Two of the recent threads I could find on it. Honestly, it might happen at some point in the future. It might not. There's a lot of areas where it could be abused though, even if only an "upgrade" option is available. Regardless, it's probably not really that high on the priority list right now.

hmm well i hope it does not get implemented because i am shure it would be abused.

That would go both ways if someone is hated by 1 person he could simply "turn" the other users/friends against that poster and destoy that count
on the other hand if someone populair would make a post he would most likely get a +1 from most users for none other then the fact that he is populair, people will always be bias.

and that karma can also be abused (if i am correct on how it works) if you want to up your karma you can easely give a +1 to all posts

Personally I approve of this. Sometimes mod's might be busy or so forth and in that case the users can just dislike the trolls and they go away!

While that's a nice thought, the "dislike" feature would be so much more abused than used properly. It's really kind of sad how many reports on posts we get just because X user is disagreeing with Y user's point of view even if X user isn't being rude or aggressive about the issue. The Karma system Simca quoted might work, but I personally see the entire thing being more of a pain in the ass than doing good.

As posted before, it's something we'd like to implement, but it's not going to happen immediately -- we need to figure out the best way to implement it for our forum community and then spend the dev time to do it well.

I would only take a Like button if we can see the amount of like/dislike a post has.
And if we see both, not a single number where a like gives +1 and a dislike gives -1.

BEcause, take for example.
Someone made a post about suggested changes in a balanced manner.
10 people likes it.
12 people dislike it.

Using a single number, the post would be shown as -2 and give the false illusion that "everyone" dislike the suggestion.
Seeing both would give the feedback that there's roughly 50% of the people that likes it.

It may also cut down on the psots with a Poll "DO YOU LIKE MY IDEA? YES/NO" .. or even "Do you like my idea? Yes / Yes", because we know alot of people do biased polls where you cant say their idea is bad.

In my humble opinion, people should focus on making constructive and helpful posts rather than worrying about voting specific threads up or down. The suggestion screams abuse to me. People will vote negatively if they disagree regardless of the fact that the thread may in fact be well written and valid.